Earshot
by Cloverfield
Summary: In which Syaoran discovers eavesdropping is a Very Bad Idea, Sakura is clueless, Kurogane is oblivious and Fai is more than a little suggestive. Things are not always what they sound like, except when they actually are. Oneshot. KuroFai.


**Preface:** I… I have no excuse for this. O.o

What is my _life_? What is this _pairing_? _What is this_ _crack_?

(Cloverfield blames the following on EB being difficult, the massive amounts of porn one can find on LJ, and the horrible realisation that she is, in fact, a closeted yaoi fangirl. Oh dear Lord.

And she also blames Kurogane and Fai, but mostly CLAMP for making them scrumptious and totally gay for each other. And her friends for encouraging her. _Why?_)

* * *

**Earshot**

* * *

Syaoran couldn't believe what he was hearing.

... Actually, he could, he really, really _could_- and that just made it so much worse. _Gods. _Had they no shame? It was the middle of the day and there were servants in the castle-! Who knows what could've happened if someone walked in on them? (The horrifying image of what could have happened if the princess had been out and about, still wandering the halls searching for her brother struck him then; he felt an immense surge of gratitude that Yukito had found Sakura-hime earlier that morning and shepherded her into the new flower garden in an effort to distract her from distracting the King.)

Ears burning, he pressed closer to the door, unable to stop the flush that flared in his cheeks at the noises. Those loud, _lewd_ noises that crept under the door frame and oozed through the cracks in the wood were stripping away his innocence the longer he stood here, he just knew it, and yet, he couldn't bring himself to pull away-

"_Uwah, Kuro-rin! So _tight_…!" _

He could practically hear the perversion in Fai's voice, dripping from every throaty syllable. Then, the _scrunch-rasp_ of cotton against cotton -a hand clutching at sheets, probably, and _why did he know that_- and a pained grunt.

"_I mean, I'm really having -_unf_- trouble getting my fingers in! You need to loosen up a little, Kuro-tan…"_

Hot blood snaked up his neck. _Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh oh oh. _Why couldn't he pull away from the door-? Why was he _listening_ to this, this, _this filth_? _What the hell was wrong with him?_

"_Nnph-! Not so hard, dammit_," -and was that a moan, oh gods, that was a _moan_, all shivery and aching even in a deep bass rumble from Kurogane- " _'s hurting_."

"_Sorry!" _purred Fai, in a tone that suggested he was anything but, "_but don't worry, Kuro-chi… when I hit the right spot, you'll feel _really_ good…" _and then there was another sound, the _slick_-slap of wet skin against skin, heat knotting tight in Syaoran's belly as a low groan, almost a growl, wanton to the point of pleading trickled through what he knew had to be gritted teeth and filtered through the closed door. _Why was he still listening to this?_ What two adults did in their own free time was surely _no business of his_, and standing here holding an armful of books that were growing heavier by the second was a very, _very_ good way to get himself found out.

Another slide of skin against skin, a sigh from Fai, a hitched breath, rich with promise and suddenly ringing across the silent hall- the last nearly made him drop a heavy treatise on the life of sandworms on his foot. _"See? I told you it'd be good."_

A shift, the movement of sheets across a bed and the meaty _thunk_ of one body coming to rest against another. There was a sharp sound, a guttural sound, a rolling kind of _purring_-throbbing-_groan_ that scorched through the air and swallowed the space between Syaoran and the door like an inferno and set his blood to _burning_ in his veins-

His head is swimming, thick and simmering with something he doesn't want or understand. He can't, _can't_ just stand and _listen_ to this, but, but, _but but but_-

"_Ooh… you're still so _tight-_" _and he has never heard any one word in any language spoken with such, such _breathless_ obscenity as this one now, Fai's voice deceptively low and silky "-_I think I'm going to have to use my elbow, Kuro-pii."_

This time he does drop the book on his foot, more than one of them in fact, heavy _thud_s of leather-bound paper crunching his toes into the cobbles, and he has to bite his knuckles to stop the yelp of pain that claws up his throat. He hisses though, breath rattling through grit teeth as he scoops up heavy tomes from his throbbing feet- and stiffens as noises beyond the door suggest that he was heard.

_Oh hell oh hell oh hell-_

"_Relax, Kuro-rin, and that's an order. You're going to undo all of my -_unph_, will you just _lie down_, there's a good ninja- hard work."_

"_Someone was-"_

"_Probably a servant." _He could hear the grin in the mage's voice, could picture all too clearly that catty smile of pink lips over white teeth that hinted so slightly at fangs. "_This is a busy castle, you know. Now lie still, or I'm going to have to lash you to the bed, _again_, and we all know how _well _that turned out last time, don't we Kuro-rinta?"_

A kind of acquiescent grumble, and then a mumbled something; Syaoran realised that odd, tight feeling in his chest was _the need to breathe_, having apparently stopped remembering to do so some few minutes ago. Dragging in great gulps of air as quietly as he could, face burning with shame, he turned to leave (_finally_, gods knew he'd been trying to do so for they alone knew how _long_) and stopped as the next few words sent a cold chill down his spine.

"_At this rate I'm going to have to stop until Sakura-chan comes back with some more oil. It's not as fun when it's not slippery, you know."_

Icy rage drops into his stomach like a brick.

"_The princess?"_ And why the ninja did not sound as outraged as Syaoran felt he would never know, he'd thought the older man had _some_ honour at least, and to involve Sakura-hime, pure sweet _Sakura_, _his_ Sakura in this, this, _sordid this-ness_ was just too much-

"_Mm-hm. She wants to learn how to do this for Syaoran-kun; and besides, she's the only one who knows where Yukito-san keeps the oils and lotions."_

The small part of his brain that had not whited out in sheer shock at the mention of _Sakura_ wanting to see this, wanting to learn _how to do this_, _wanting to do this to him of all things_ (and how the _hell _would that work _anyway?_) caught itself on the half-thought that his King's High Priest was some sort of peddler of erotic potions and backed away in pure terror.

_I don't want to hear any more. This is too much. I can't-_

"Syaoran? Why are you standing in Kurogane-san's doorway? Did you lose something?"

Turning from the weird sort of half-crouch he found himself in, arms full of books from the royal library, Syaoran looked up in slow horror at the gentle young woman smiling down at him. Green eyes were entirely guileless as his princess shuffled around the bottles in her slender arms -_bottles full of liquid that slops against glass with oily _gloop_ing sounds, argh argh argh-_ and extended a hand to help him up. Unthinking, he accepts and realises that this is probably the last time he will ever see her beautiful face, because as soon as that door opens (_as soon as Kurogane and Fai realise he has been listening to them for a good ten minutes_) he is going to die.

And sure enough, there is the rapid sound of footsteps, and then the door swings open to reveal Fai, blonde hair artfully dishevelled about his grinning -_smug, knowing, _far_ too knowing_- face, sleeves pushed up and pale arms slick to the elbow.

"Syaoran-kun! How nice of you to… join us. Please, come in- I've no doubt this will be educational for you." Fai _winks_, the _bastard_- blue-and-gold flashes behind half-lidded, thick lashes and he sweeps the door back with a gesture more suited to the stage than the doorway, and before he can quite gather his wits about him or even his feet from under him, Syaoran is swept inside too, Sakura bobbing daintily along behind him-

-and there is Kurogane, gleaming with oil, bronzed and muscled as he lies on the bed, lifting his dark head lazily to watch him through eyes like a slash of cut ruby-

-except he is wearing trousers still, and that is a towel slumped over the small of his back, scar tissue like claws curling over the thick muscle that bunches beneath tanned skin_. What?_

Syaoran's heart jolts to a stuttering halt in his chest. His breath leaves him as Sakura bounces happily to the bedside table, dumping her armful of bottles onto the wooden surface. Fai pats him reassuringly on the head as he sweeps past, pushing Syaoran into a seat and then swings his lean frame up and onto the bed, straddling the hips of the prone ninja; Kurogane grunts in protest but accepts the weight all the same, even as the blonde reaches for one of the bottles liberated from Yukito's secret stash.

"See? Scar tissue gets so tense, you know." Uncorking the bottle with a wet-sounding _pop_, Fai glugs a generous handful into his palm. Thin drizzles of iridescent fluid drip from lean fingers and onto Kurogane's scarred back as he reaches across to drop the bottle back to the bench, but then he is rubbing slender hands together, thin fingers shiny and wet as he coats them from fingertip to knuckle. "And when Sakura-chan told me that you've been having trouble with stretching after sparring, Syaoran-kun… well, I offered to show her what I know about massage." Fai shifts a little, grins, and splays what must be very cold hands over the ninja's broad back, making the man beneath him grunt as chilly fingertips work into a tight knot of muscle. "After all, I do know _quite a lot_."

Pale hands slide slowly over tanned flesh, prodding and pushing where corded bands of scar tissue draw tight. Fai smiles languidly, digging his thumbs in. Kurogane grunts again, somewhat in pain, head sinking down to mumble a sound of protest against his folded arms; but then slender, nimble fingers are moving again and the noise quickly melts into a low moan. Syaoran flushes as the princess sits forward, raptly attentive, and is unable to stop the heat in his cheeks, deeply ashamed of where his thoughts were headed-

Looking up towards Fai, Syaoran opened his mouth to apologise, but stalled as Fai rocks back on Kurogane's hips, arches his spine in a slow roll and smiles winsomely at the princess, already rattling off techniques to loosen muscle tissue and work through stiffness, but his gaze flicks over to the boy watching in the chair and what he sees there makes his blood run hot and twist in his veins.

That look in slitted eyes, mismatched and lazily suggestive tells Syaoran more than he has even wanted to know about the older man and says that the magician _knew very well_ _that he had been listening this whole time_ and knows _every_. single. _dirty_. thought that flashed through his brain in quick, hot spatters of bright light and wrenching sensation-

"Wow, Fai-san! You're really good at this!"

"_Mummy's had a lot of practice, dear!"_

Slowly, Syaoran slumps forward to rest his forehead against his palms and wishes like he has never wished for anything before that the earth will open up and swallow his shame.

_I want to die. Kill me. Someone. _Anyone_. Please._

****

**

* * *

**

"It's a very good thing Syaoran-kun didn't take it into his little head to come by earlier in the morning, hmm?"

Cool, lean fingers press gently against taut flesh in a slow, slick caress- and already it is too much. Kurogane groans, rolls over and captures a pale wrist with dark, sure fingers.

"Mage. _Shut up_."

The words are a rumbling growl, and the sound drags ghostly fingertips over his spine, leaving goosebumps in its wake. Fai lets himself be pushed back into the mattress, smiling, and does not mind so much when his protests are silenced with a warm mouth and broad hands that splay over his chest, burning through his clothes.

_After all, _he thinks as a calloused thumb hooks into the sash about his waist and _pulls_, silk sliding free in a gentle rasp, _Kuro-sama is good with his hands too_.

* * *

**Endnote: **Titles are _hard_. If I can think of a better one, I'll change it later.

So this was me, studying for exams. Um.

(Considering that this was drafted verbally before being written down, it really is a case of it being worse than it sounds.)

I swear, I'll go study now. I promise.

...I may have in fact implied that Syaoran is, if not gay, then at least a little curious. Which was totally not my intention, mmkay? Just, you know, teenage boy listening in on what he assumes is something dirty -and let's face it, with those two involved it probably is- would maybe, you know, get a little excited. And hey, this _is_ CLAMP.

I'm also aware that the whole "listening in on two people who may or may not be doing something dirty but are actually being totally innocent" thing has been done before, but damn, this was fun to write anyway :D

(For any of you that read my other stuff, namely EB, please be assured I am still writing for it- I just needed to blow off a little steam before exams, and well, this happened. I'll get back to work on it soon, I promise!)

Reviews are welcome :)


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